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Construction
of Ganga
Prem Hospice
Ganga Prem Hospice Design
The Hospice is designed
in sweeping curves oriented to absorb the healing
and warming rays of the morning and afternoon
sun. Facing the river Ganga and the guava orchard
that lies between the Hospice and the river, all
the rooms of the building will have a beautiful
and peaceful view.
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We enter the Hospice gate in the northwest corner
of the site. Before us is an open reception area
that gives a view of the central garden and the
shrine. The curved wings of the Hospice stretch
out on either side of the hall. To the left we have
the office, library, bathrooms, art and music rooms,
yoga/conference hall, kitchen, storeroom, dining
room and an open air sit-out. To the right we have
allopathic and holistic clinics, the emergency room,
autoclave, dispensary, doctor's cabins, paediatrician
room, laboratory, E.C.G. room, counselling room
and spiritual counselling room.
A verandah runs along the
length of both arms of the facility and opens
onto the circular central garden, which has pleasant
sitting areas, shrubbery, flowers, trees and water
spaces. The shrine is situated opposite a circular
water canal and is flanked by flowering and medicinal
trees. Beyond, Gangaji can be seen flowing serenely
on the far side of the guava orchard. Rajaji National
Park and the foothills of the Himalayas stretch
away from the other bank of the river.
Back
in the Hospice, an open stairway, a wheelchair
ramp and an elevator provide access to the first
floor, which has residential rooms for the patients.
Two wards with open terraces are situated at either
end of the open verandah, which runs the length
of the building. In the left-hand wing there are
twelve single rooms, while the right-hand wing
has two double rooms, a nurse's station, minor
procedure room, laundry, bathrooms and leisure
room. In the open area which joins the two wings
there is a circular satsang/meditation hall, which
lies above the main entrance on the ground floor.
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open stairway and elevator take us to the top floor,
which hosts the staff quarters. At the centre above
the satsang hall is an open terrace, which leads
to the verandahs of the left and right wings. Set
back from the verandah on the left is the director's
room as well as rooms for medical staff, spiritual
advisors, alternative therapists and volunteers.
The right wing contains the guest bedrooms and three
dormitories. Either side ends in an open terrace
overlooking the gardens below.
The
Hospice site which is flanked by a row of trees
has a driveway to the left which leads to the
storeroom. Another roadway on the opposite side
branches off from inside the main gate and runs
along the right wing of the facility leading to
the mortuary, central oxygen supply and generator
room, housed in a separate building. Parking
spaces provided at the road side of the Hospice
open onto a front garden.
Your generous donation will
ensure that the construction of the Ganga Prem
Hospice will take place in the year 2013.
Plans
for Construction of GPH: Phase One
The Ganga Prem Hospice architectural
plans have now been finalized in accordance with
the designs of Mr Vivek Ananda of San Francisco
and Prof. Yatin Pandya of Allahabad. Construction
of the first phase of the three-storied Hospice
will begin in 2013.
Despite
fundraising efforts, as funds to build our 30-bed
facility have been slow in coming in Shradha Cancer
Care Trust has decided to start the in-patient
facility with the construction of phase one, which
will be the first two floors of the eastern wing
of the planned Hospice. This facility will have
beds for up to 10 in-patients and will include
all the basic amenities needed to serve them.
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| The ground floor
of Phase One seen in red |
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| A 3D rendering
of Phase One |
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Phase one of the facility
will have a ward for 5 patients and also 5 single
patient rooms. The building will also have a reception
and waiting area, an allopathic clinic to serve
the local population, an alternative therapies
room, an office, a kitchen, a dining room, a laundry,
a store room, staff quarters and a satsang/meditation
hall. A small shrine will be attractively situated
in the garden overlooking the Ganga river and
will be connected to the main building by a flower-bordered
path.
A full costing of the first
phase of the Ganga Prem Hospice can be found on
our Immediate
Needs page.
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Latest
Construction News
March
20th, 2012
Formation
of a Construction Committee
Preparations for construction
of the East wing of the Ganga Prem Hospice
are in full swing. At the suggestion of
the GPH architect Prof. Yatin Pandya, a
construction committee has been formed to
oversee the preparations as well as the
building of the Hospice.
Prof. Pandya has kindly
agreed to head the committee while other
members include SCCT chairman Dr AK Deswan,
trustees Mr Negi and Nani Ma, the Hospice
structural egineer Mr Rangarao, hospital
construction expert Mr Kaushal, GPH accountant
Mr Suresh Kathpalia, invaluable volunteers
and technical advisors Moksha and Smita
Thappar, and coordinators Pooja Dogra and
Anuj Gupta. They have been included to form
a comprehensive body of advisors and administrators.
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| Pre-construction
work at the site in Gohri Maphi |
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The
long period of time needed to obtain
various building permissions from the
government has proved to be the biggest
hurdle to an early start in the building,
and assistant manager Divyae Katiyar
in Rishikesh has spent many hours over
the last year waiting to meet with officials
in the local and state government offices.
Finally however, most of the permissions
have been forthcoming and now plans
are moving into the area of practical
preparations. |
Fundraising has also
been another of the main activities in which
a tremendous amount of effort has been put
in. Pooja in particular has spent many hours
of overtime in preparing presentations for
would-be funders as well as conversing with
them over email and phone and meeting them
in person. Volunteer Steven Lopresti has
also given invaluable help to Pooja by arranging
for proper data collection and preparing
sophisticated presentations of the Hospice
statistics. Fundraising to build the in-patient
facility has not been an easy task, especially
in view of the ever rising expenditure involved
in Ganga Prem's rapidly expanding services
in Uttarakhand.
A project management
company that works with Prof. Pandya has
been kind enough to offer its services to
the Hospice free of charge and is preparing
a complete format to guide the GPH committee
through the project. They have assured their
ongoing help throughout the period of construction.
The committee is now
considering which of the interested contractors
to choose for the assignment and is also
looking for a civil engineer to employ as
site supervisor in Raiwala. A number of
local contractors have been very helpful
in giving advice in the pre-construction
stages. At present the land is being cleared
and readied for construction. The building
is hoped to begin well before the rainy
season, which may otherwise cause considerable
obstruction to the laying of the foundations,
etc. If the final government permissions
are not ready in time, the construction
may be postponed until the end of the monsoon.
September
27th, 2011
Structural Engineer
Visits Ganga Prem Site
On Tuesday, September
27th, our structural engineer, Mr Rangarao
of Hyderabad, visited the company that did
the soil testing at the Ganga Prem Hospice
site. He then accompanied a local contracter
to Raiwala to see the land.
| Mr
Venkata Rangarao, a well known structural
engineer from Hyderabad, has offered
his services free of charge to Ganga
Prem Hospice. He has worked closely
with Prof. Yatin Pandya, the GPH architect,
on a number of projects including charity
projects such as slum redevelopment.
Mr Rangarao is well known in the design
and construction industry for his innovative,
eco friendly and low cost structural
designing. |
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| Mr Rangarao
(left) speaks with the contractor |
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On a visit to Chandigarh,
Mr Rangarao took a detour and spent time
with the soil testing company in Roorkee
to enquire first hand on the details of
their soil test findings. He then proceeded
to the GPH site in Raiwala to see the area
for himself and evaluate its potential.
Mr Rangarao was happy to see that the ground
was stable and not in any serious danger
from flood waters. He also consulted with
a local contractor who is a civil engineer
and has experience of the area. Mr Rangarao
discussed with him the possibility of using
ribbed or solid reinforced cement concrete
slabs or stone slab technology in the construction
of the Hospice.
Mr Rangarao will now
finalize the structural designs, which will
be sent along with the architectural designs
to the Haridwar Development Authority for
approval.
September
1st, 2011
Soil Test
at GPH Site for a Sound Structure
GPH structural
engineer Mr Rangarao of Hyderabad had requested
a professional soil test at the Ganga Prem
Hospice building site before he begins work
on the structural design.
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| Unloading
soil testing equipment from the
Soilex truck |
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The field
test of the Ganga Prem Hospice site
soil was done on September 1st, 2011.
A team of eight people from Soilex
Consultant, Roorkee visited the site.
The procedure took the team several
hours as the soil samples were taken
from different places with the soil
testing equipment.
It was
a beautiful sunny day and the view
of Gangaji and Himalayan foothills
were stupendous.
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Nishikant Aterkar of
Soilex explained, "Just as pathology
tests are important before a surgery is
conducted, soil testing is crucial before
the structural designs of a building are
laid out."
Soil testing,
which involves field as well as laboratory
tests, ensures the optimisation of the structural
designs as well as guarantees that the foundations
of the building are strong. With lab tests,
an exact picture of the behaviour of the
soil, which depends on its properties, can
be assessed.
July,
2011
Revisions in Architectural
Plans
Professor
Yatin Pandya, the internationally renowned
architect from Ahmedabad, India, has voluntarily
offered his services to Ganga Prem Hospice.
| Professor
Yatin Pandya, India's well known architect
and proponent of sustainable building,
kindly offered his services in helping
to finalize the design of the Hospice.
In April he met the Shradha Cancer Care
Trust board and other supporters in
Delhi to show them his ideas and recommendations.
At the presentation, Dr Pandya also
gave an interesting talk on the history
and principles of Indian architecture. |
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| Prof. Pandya
explains a point at the Delhi
meeting |
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Some time later, on
studying the local bylaws for construction
of medical facilities, Prof. Pandya found
that our present design would not fit into
the alloted area, therefore it was necessary
to make further revisions to the original
plan.
Along with Prof. Pandya,
interior designers Smita and Moksh Thappar
have worked hard to keep the spirit of Mr
Vivek Anand's design while modifying certain
features and enriching others. With the
advice of Manish Agrawal, structural engineer
from Lucknow, the building will be especially
designed to withstand local flooding and
minor earthquake tremors, as the site lies
between two streams and is also in Zone
4 of the Himalayan earthquake region. The
interior design will be done by Prof. Pandya
and his team.
The construction of
the first phase of the Hospice is planned
to start in October of this year. Special
appeals are being made for sponsors to help
finance the building. Indian firms are also
being approached with requests for donations
in kind.
June 19th, 2011
Land Survey
of Ganga Prem Hospice Site
The Ganga Prem Hospice land survey was done
on June 19th, 2011 at the Hospice land in
Gohri Maphi, Raiwala.
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| An engineer taking
measurements with his instruments |
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| The GPH land survey
with Gangaji in the background |
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Done by a land survey team headed by Professor Kamal
Jain of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),
Roorkee, the third-dimensional survey results will
aid in the rendering of the final architectural
design. With high-tech digital equipment being used
for the survey, the angle and distances recorded
are accurate to a few millimetres. The coordinates
are then transported to a computer for the final
map to be prepared. The land survey is going to
facilitate the making of a precise and well-planned
architectural design. Dr Kamal Jain, head of the
survey team, said, "If you have a good three-dimensional
topographical map, it particularly helps in planning
a functional drainage system, something that lacks
in most town planning." While the conventional
plane table survey technique is time-consuming and
weather dependent, the digital instruments ensured
that the survey was over in a few hours' time.
December,
2009
Boundary
Wall Construction
Construction of the boundary wall was completed
in December 2009
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construction of the boundary wall and fencing
around the Ganga Prem Hospice site was completed
in December and the gate was put into place.
A local man has been hired as watchman and
the site is regualarly visited by Mr Ghai
and other members of the Hospice team. |
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| Ganga Prem Hospice
site with gate and boundary wall. |
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August 10th, 2009
Construction of
Road to Hospice Site
Construction of the approach road to Ganga Prem
Hospice site was started on the 10th August.
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| Construction of
the Hospice approach road |
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.After
long negotiations with the local community
heads and the people of the area an amical
agreement was reached concerning the approach
road to the Ganga Prem Hospice site. Work
was started on the 300 metre road on August
the 10th. The contract was given to the local
pradan and the work is going aheadquickly.
Swami Madhavanda and Mr Ghai are looking over
the work |
August 7th, 2009
Preparations for
the Boudary Wall
At the Hospice site in Rai Wala, construction
of the boundary wall was started on August 7th.
| Construction
of the boundary wall around the Hospice site
was started on the 7th August. The contract
was given to the local village Pradan. The
wall will be 3 feet high and will be topped
by a 3 feehigh fence. Ganga Prem Hospice general
manager Swami Madhavananda is looking after
the work. Mr Ghai and Dr. Dewan have visited
the site on a number of occasions to see that
everything is going well. |
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| Construction of
the boundary wall. |
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Plans for Construction
We will start the
construction of the Ganga Prem Hospice in-patient
facility in 2013. Basic necessities such as improvement
of the approach road and proper water supply, etc,
will be our first priorities, after which we will
start to construct the Hospice building.
We intend to build our Hospice
for terminally ill cancer patients near to the
foothills of the Himalayas. It will be situated
between Haridwar and Rishikesh on the bank of
the river Ganga. We will start the Hospice with
a simple infrastructure, basic equipment and a
patient capacity of 10 beds. Our final goal, however,
is a fully equipped hospice with a capacity of
serving up to 30 terminally ill cancer patients.
At that time we intend that the Hospice will be
furnished with all necessary modern facilities
for dealing with every aspect of medical care
and nursing of the terminally ill. The Hospice
will have aesthetically designed areas for the
cultural and spiritual care and support of the
patients and their families.
The Ganga Prem Hospice will include:
General rooms
Reception and lounge, office, library, art room,
music room, yoga/conference hall, kitchen, kitchen
store, dining room, sit-out, allopathic clinic,
holistic clinic, emergency room, autoclave, dispensing
room, doctor's cabins, paediatrician room, laboratory,
E.C.G. room, counselling room, spiritual counselling
room, shrine, mortuary/generator room/oxygen supply,
leisure room, laundry, minor procedure room, nurse's
station, satsang/meditation hall, terraces
Patient
rooms
12 single rooms (with bathroom), 2 double rooms
(with bathroom), 2 general wards (5 beds each,
with bathrooms)
Staff
quarters
Director's room, 2 rooms for medical staff, 3
rooms for spiritual advisors, 2 rooms for alternative
therapists, 3 rooms for volunteers, 2 rooms for
guests, 3 dormitories (5 beds each)
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